Dallas TX | Flashback : Dallas

April 22, 2025

Commerce & Market, Where the Air Was Made Blue

Kinder, gentler times…

by Paula Bosse

The photo above shows a small, fairly nondescript building at the southwest corner of Market and Commerce, with retail stores and a cafe at street level and, I think, a hotel on the second floor. My car-make-and-model knowledge is bad, but I’ll guess that this photo might be from the early ’20s (a 1921 Sanborn map of the area is here). If you go back even further — like to 1891 — this corner was a hangout for unsavory types, as reported below in The Dallas Morning News in 1891.

Dallas Morning News, Sept. 7, 1891

It’s no surprise there was “indecent and profane language” in the air in 1891 (“particularly on Saturdays”), seeing as that corner was a mere hop, skip, and a jump from Dallas’ premier red-light district.

This corner is currently occupied by the George Allen Courts Building.

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Sources & Notes

Photo, titled “Building at SW corner of Market and Commerce Streets, formerly occupied by City National Bank Dallas, 1872,” is from the Collection of Dallas Morning News negatives and copy photographs, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University; more information is here.

This post appeared in a slightly different version on the Flashback Dallas Patreon page.

8 Comments

April 14, 2025

Lake Highlands Village — 1951

Buckner and Northcliff, 1951

by Paula Bosse

This is an interesting photo from an ad for J. M. Tuttle Jr. Real Estate/Tuttle Development Company. Jack Tuttle was one of the most prominent developers of Lake Highlands, near White Rock Lake, east of Buckner Blvd. Tuttle began buying land in this far-flung, undeveloped area around 1939 and eventually owned pretty much everything in the area, including Lake Highlands Village, a shopping area a mere stone’s throw from White Rock Lake and not far from Casa Linda. The map below (from another Tuttle ad) shows where much of Tuttle’s property was at the time, including LHV, which was (and still is) at 720 N. Buckner Blvd. It looks a lot different now, but it’s interesting to see how it started out.

Here is the text that accompanied the photo in the ad from 1951:

Lake Highlands Village

Distinctively individual design plus surrounding natural beauty makes the Lake Highlands Estates an ideal homesite for the discriminating home-owner. And you will like the convenience of your own shopping center in the Lake Highlands Village, just minutes from downtown Dallas and seconds from cool White Rock Lake.

1952

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Sources & Notes

Photo and map are from ads that appeared in Dallas magazine in Feb. 1951 and Feb. 1952.

More on Lake Highlands from Flashback Dallas in “Old Lake Highlands.”

This post appeared previously on the Flashback Dallas Patreon page.

3 Comments

March 24, 2025

A Few Photo Additions to Past Posts — #24

Central Dallas Public Library

by Paula Bosse

Time for a few more of these: photos, etc., I’ve come across recently that I am adding to old posts on the topic in order to keep everything together, but I’m also putting them here because they’re still kind of “new.” All of these are things I’ve come across while working at my new job on the Dallas History floor of the downtown library (which, so far, has been great!). I’ve been looking through a lot of old Chamber of Commerce magazines on breaks, and that’s where a lot of these images come from.

But first, above, a really great architect’s drawing of the very library where I work (the architects were Fisher & Spillman). I’ve added it to the post “Flashback Newsflash: Working at the Library.” (Source: Dallas Public Library Archives, Dallas History and Archives, Dallas Public Library) (Images are larger when clicked.)

This photo of kids lining up to buy tickets to see The Beatles ran with this caption: “The Preston Ticket Agency, a service of the Preston State Bank of Dallas, recently attracted this crowd when the agency was named to handle the exclusive sale of tickets for a September performance in Dallas of the Beatles quartet. Some youngsters stood in line 24 hours before the ticket office opened for business. The Preston Ticket Agency has been in operation since 1963, and last year served over 40,000 customers with tickets to major Dallas entertainment attractions.” It has been added to 2014 post “The Fab Four in Big D — 1964” (Source: Dallas magazine — a publication of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce — July 1964, Periodicals Collection, Dallas Public Library)

The library has a poster collection. It has been dormant for many years, but it would be nice to get some new additions to the collection! If you have Dallas-specific posters, please considering donating them to the library — or, if you produce posters or flyers for events, keep us in mind and send us a copy. This poster from 1973 publicized an East Dallas neighborhood project that, happily, was successful. I’ve added it to 2016’s “The Gateway to Junius Heights” (and, incidentally, the 1917 date on the poster is incorrect, as I found ads from 1909 that had the pillars/columns/gate in them). (Source: Poster Collection, DPL)

This 1936 ad for the Outdoor Electric Advertising company features a photo of the exterior of the Main Street side of the Adolphus, with a big neon sign for the Century Club and a smaller sign for the Adolphus Bar. I’ve included this in the 2022 post “1400 Block of Main Street, ca. 1946,” which shows this same view in the daytime. (Source: Southwest Business — published by the Dallas Chamber of Commerce — Sept. 1936 — Periodicals Collection, DPL)

I really like this photo of Everette DeGolyer, seen here with Stanley Marcus, so I’ve added it to “Everette Lee DeGolyer, Bibliophile” (2016). (Source: Dallas magazine, Sept. 1951, Periodicals Collection, DPL)

This cool art deco building began as an automobile showroom but became a National Defense School during WWII. I’ve added it to “2222 Ross Avenue: From Packard Dealership to ‘War School’ to Landmark Skyscraper” (2015). (Source: 1942 booklet “Young America in Dallas,” DPL)

This photo and ad regarding the decor of the Administration Building during the Texas Centennial have been added to the agonizingly titled “State Fair Coliseum/Centennial Administration Building/Women’s Museum/Women’s Building” (2018). (Sources: photo is from Southwest Business, June 1936; ad is from the Oct. 1936 issue of the same magazine, Periodicals Collection, DPL)

Still on the Centennial, this is a cool photo showing the large team of lighting people who produced what, by all accounts, was the most spectacular thing about the already overwhelmingly spectacular Texas Centennial (and, also, the following year’s Pan-American Exposition): the lighting displays, which, at the time, cost more than $500,000 (equivalent now to more than $11.5 million). From the article that accompanied this photo: “The general lighting effect is a battery of twenty-four 36-inch searchlights as powerful as the giants that flash from the dreadnoughts of Uncle Sam’s navy. Each searchlight will produce 60 million candlepower. Combined, the battery has a total candlepower of 1.5 billion. A 350,000-watt power generator will produce this colossal quantity of ‘juice.'” You can see those 24 giant searchlights (and the tiny-looking men standing next to them) in this photo, which has been added to 2016’s “Albert Einstein ‘Threw the Switch’ in New Jersey to Open the Pan-American Exposition in Dallas — 1937.” (Source: Southwest Business, June 1936, Periodicals Collection, DPL)

This Dallas Power & Light ad has been added to the 2024 post “On the Line at Coca-Cola — 1964.” (Source: Dallas magazine, April 1964, Periodicals Collection, DPL)

Here’s the Preston Road Neiman-Marcus under construction. I’ve added it to “Neiman’s First Suburban Store: Preston Road — 1951-1965” (2020), (Source: Dallas magazine, Feb. 1951, Periodicals Collection, DPL)

The Highland Park swimming pool looks so quaint. I’ve added it to another quaint photo in 2015’s “A Dip in the HP Pool — 1924.” (Source: Highland Park, an interesting newspaper published by developers Flippen-Prather, June 1927, Periodicals Collection, DPL)

And, lastly, I’ve added an article which was, basically, a what-the-heck-is-the-deal-with Zangs vs. Zang’s vs. Zang Boulevard? It adds a little (only a little) insight. The caption for these two photos (very difficult to capture with a phone!): “Harry Gaston, Oak Cliff real estate and insurance man, points out the ZANGS street sign in the north 700 block of the boulevard at Canty Street. A look of bewilderment adorns his face, however, when he discovers the ZANG (no S) sign on the opposite end and other side of the same north 700 block. City records show ZANG as the correct spelling… a reorientation program for the public and some great big headaches for map makers.” The scanned article (not included here), these very wonky photos, and a portrait of Louis C. Zang have been added to 2017’s “Zang and Beckley.” (Source: Oak Cliff magazine — published by the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce — Nov. 1967, Periodicals Collection, DPL)

Enough for this installment!

January 30, 2025

An Artist’s Conception of a Future Dallas

Vision of a new downtown library…

by Paula Bosse

I came across a collection of drawings recently that I think are just fantastic. They show what Dallas could be if we all just want it enough. The captions are giddy and exuberant, with the exhortation “Let’s build for the future.” It’s the sort of Chamber of Commerce boosterism which is a Dallas mainstay. Dallas dreams big and bold.

It’s not the ideas that I find so intriguing (although, they’re interesting), it’s the artwork. These drawings are great. The monumental, Deco-ish buildings exude a quiet power. Most of them are set against a dark sky, which adds extra awe-inspiring heft. I really, really love these drawings. It’s a shame most of these conceptions remained just that. I would have loved that library (above)! The artist is Ignatz Sahula-Dycke — more about him at the end of this post.

The drawings are not dated, but my guess is late 1930s or very early 1940s. Promotional captions accompany each picture. Click to see full-screen images. Enjoy!

A NEW SPORTS STADIUM AT FAIR PARK

100,000 Witness Nation’s Annual Football Classic — “The Cotton Bowl at Dallas, Texas, was the scene of the nation’s most thrilling football classic. The game climaxed a spectacular New Year’s Carnival, including the famous Texas Gold Cup college mile relay, in which twenty of the leading colleges entered picked teams.” … This could well be the lead in all of the nation’s newspapers the day after New Year’s. With the proper promotion and attractions, Dallas can equal and surpass the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl. With five million sports-loving people within a radius of 500 miles, Dallas has more to draw on than either of the other two events. This Sahula-Dycke visual gives just an idea of how the new stadium might appear.

A CITY AUDITORIUM / CONVENTION CENTER

Attendance 20,000; Patrons Walked From Downton – Your new auditorium may look something like this, according to visualizer Sahula-Dycke. In any event, it’s expected to be beautiful, comfortable, adjustable to meetings, concerts, pageants, theatricals, operas, and conventions, from the smallest and most intimate, to attractions of Madison Square Garden proportions. And it WILL be within easy walking distance from hotels in downtown areas. Millions in trade revenue will come to Dallas… trade revenues which for years have passed Dallas by because of: “no facilities.”

AN EXPANDED LOVE FIELD

Love Field Glorified — Vastly expanded in area… capacity increased by multiple, ten-thousand-foot runways capable of serving the great “Constellation” size ships… tremendous improvement in station lobbies, offices, sky-view restaurant, parking and hotel facilities. It will be equipped to qualify as one of the three major airports of America. It can truly be called: “Grand Central Terminal of Southwest air-passenger traffic.”

HIGHWAYS

Up and Over In a Breeze — and with perfect safety and satisfaction. Under the Master Plan on many main arteries, cross traffic and stop lights will be eliminated by modern “cloverleaf” highway grade separations. The above is the artist’s “visual” of the proposed Sylvan Street-Fort Worth Avenue overpass. It is representative of many planned trafficways and overpasses or underpasses to speed traffic, reduce hazards, and beautify our city. Central Boulevard from Downtown to North Dallas will be a six-lane dream-come-true for motorists.

A NEW UNION STATION (…no steps!!!)

“Yes, We Have No Steps” — Not a reality, not yet a promise, but our conception of what may be, by designer Sahula-Dycke. We may have an entirely new Union Station, built WEST of the present tracks, with entrance from the west side. A wide plaza in front with room for the heaviest traffic loads, worlds of room to park. The great concourse through the center with waiting rooms, restaurants, ticket offices, baggage rooms, etc, arranged for convenience, speed, and volume. Trains on ground level at rear… No steps to climb… no steps… no steps… no steps… no.

UNION STATION INTERIOR (…seriously, we mean it: NO STEPS!)

New Station Or Old — No Stairs — Whether or not an entirely new Union Station is built, stairs are out for the future. One proposal is to make over the present station with waiting rooms and public facilities on the ground floor. Access to train levels would be via passageways with easy grades, but no steps to climb. This suggestion is visualized by the above artist’s conception which almost anyone will agree would be a welcome improvement.

MEDICAL CENTER

Dallas a Medical Mecca — The Greater Dallas Master Planning Committee is cooperating with Southwest Medical Foundation in many ways such as zoning, land use, routing of streets and trafficways, etc. The Medical Center when built will be one of the greatest and most complete in the world. Plans for the number, size, and arrangement of buildings are still in the formative stage, but the layout will be pretentious, efficient, beautiful and impressive; perhaps something like artist Sahula-Dycke visualizes above, a purely imaginative sketch, which can be a reality.

CENTRAL LIBRARY

Dallas Now a City of 14,000 Population — “Why that’s absurd, must be a misprint,” you say. But that really is our present population if our present library is used as a yardstick. The old “Mid-Victorian antique,” built 40 years ago would serve nicely for a town the size of Greenville. For the city of a million people, which Dallas is destined to be within the next quarter century, we’ll need a library something like the above. So far it’s just artist Sahula-Dycke’s dream, but it can come true under the Master Plan. Let’s build for the future.

I don’t know the date of these drawings. My guess would be the late ’30s or very early ’40s. (The Union Station drawing shows a building that looks like the Mercantile Bank Building. Plans for the Mercantile were announced to the public in 1940.) In a Dallas Morning News article (“‘Greater Dallas’ Appeals Stir Chamber to Renewed Action,” DMN, Dec. 8, 1937), many of the things covered in the captions above were hot topics at the annual meeting of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce. A “Master Plan” was later developed by Harland Bartholomew in the early ’40s. After a break for the war, the plan was finally put before the voters in April 1945.

The plans changed some between 1937 and 1945, but the visions touted in the drawings above were similar to the plans accepted favorably by Dallas voters. (The one part of this Master Plan that failed — and which is not mentioned in the drawings — is the vote on whether to “unify” the City of Dallas by annexing the Park Cities and Preston Hollow. Everyone was all for it… except for Highland Park and University Park, who chose to remain unannexed.) See an ad that appeared in March 1945, a week before the election, listing all the things Big D was hoping to build and develop here

The artist of these conceptions was Ignatz Sahula-Dycke (1900-1982). Ignatz Sahula (known as “Iggie” to his friends) was born in Bohemia (Austria), near Prague, and immigrated with his family to the United States when he was a child. At some point he added his mother’s maiden name “Dycke” to his name — his mother was an artist and a descendant of 17th-century Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck. He studied art in Chicago and, after a stint in the U.S. Navy during World War I, worked for a variety of businesses as a commercial artist. He came to Dallas around 1937 and worked for many years at the Tracy-Locke advertising agency, eventually becoming Creative Art Director of the Dallas office. He actually left Dallas for a while to focus on his art but came back to Dallas a few years later and ended up working for Tracy-Locke for 14 years. His paintings and illustrations center around horses and Southwestern subjects such as desert landscapes and western themes. A good biography and photo of him can be found here, in an article from Western Art & Architecture.

Sahula-Dycke, 1950s

Santa Fe New Mexican, July 28, 1968

Iggie’s favorite subject was horses. Below is a little sketch he did when inscribing Alias Kinson, or The Ghost of Billy the Kid, a 1963 novel he wrote and illustrated, along with his author’s photo. (The back cover is here, complete with what may be a self-penned biography for this self-published book.)

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Sources & Notes

All Dallas Master Plan images drawn by Ignatz Sahula-Dycke are from the Master Plan Vertical Files of the Dallas History and Archives, Dallas Public Library.

Inscription with watercolor-highlighted sketch and author photo are from an inscribed copy of Sahula-Dycke’s novel, Alias Kinson, currently listed on eBay.

A related Flashback Dallas post regarding Bartholomew’s Master Plan: “‘Your Dallas of Tomorrow’ — 1943.”

4 Comments

January 10, 2025

Snow in Irwindell — 1940

Snow day in Irwindell…

by Paula Bosse

We have snow in Dallas! It’s always exciting for those of us who have grown up here and haven’t really experienced snow that many times in our lives. It’s pretty and magical and, unless you have to drive or walk in it, a welcome treat.

I came across this artwork back in 2018 and have been meaning to post it on a snow day. We’ve had snow since then, but I never got around to it until now. Better late than never.

“My Dallas Home, 1940” (pastel on paper) is by Dallas artist Inez Staub Elder (1894-1991). It shows a snowy scene, with children playing, one of them on a sled. A house is in the background. One would assume from the title that the house was Inez’s house. Her address in 1940 — and for years before and after — was 3339 Gibsondell, in the Irwindell neighborhood of Oak Cliff. Looking at the house on Google Street View, it is apparent that 3339 is not the house seen in the drawing. I figured that if Inez was sketching a winter scene of her neighborhood, she might have done it inside, looking out a window. So I reversed the view from her home, and the house seen in the drawing is one across the street, at 3334 Gibsondell. The brick house has been painted gray, but the image below shows what it looked like when I was originally researching this, back in 2018 — still red brick.

The pictured house is here (Google Street View image from May 2018).

Inez Staub Elder, born in Ohio, lived in Dallas for decades. She regularly exhibited and also taught art. Below is an application she filled out for a show at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts in 1943.

From a 1957 publication:

The geranium in color:

The only image I’ve been able to find of Inez Staub Elder, taken around the time of “My Dallas Home, 1940” is below.

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Sources & Notes

Top image of painting by Inez Staub Elder titled “My Dallas Home, 1940” (pastel on paper) is from the David Dike Gallery catalog of the October 27, 2018 auction — this was lot 323.

The Dallas Museum of Fine Arts 1943 “Application for One-Man Exhibit” is from the Dallas Museum of Art Exhibition Records, Portal to Texas History, here.

The black-and-white image of the geranium is from the catalog “La Fiesta of Art, 1957,” Bill and Mary Cheek Collection, Portal to Texas History, here.

Color image of the geranium still life is from AskArt.

Read more about Irwindell/The Dells District at the Heritage Oak Cliff website.

2 Comments

December 31, 2024

Year-End List: Most Popular Posts of 2024

The “Reservation”

by Paula Bosse

Another year has passed. I’ve been writing Flashback Dallas for 11 years now, and I surprise even myself when I say that I’m still as excited to learn new things about my hometown as I was when I started this blog in 2014. I am, somehow, approaching 1,500 posts. That’s a lot of murky water under the viaduct.

The high point of 2024 for me was that I finally became a “professional” historian — or at least someone who works full-time (for money!) in the history realm: I became a member of the staff of the Dallas History and Archives at the downtown Dallas Public Library. As you can imagine, this is a job where I am constantly distracted by cool stuff. Working for so long on the blog has prepared me quite a bit in assisting people with their own history research. I’ve met several very nice library customers who read Flashback Dallas, and their kind words have made fitting into a new job a lot easier.

I appreciate all of the support I’ve received over the years, both from longtime loyal readers as well as from casual visitors. Thank you! I hope there will be more to draw you back in 2025.

These are the most popular Flashback Dallas posts of 2024, ranked in order by the number of page hits, comments, shares, etc. Read the full post by clicking the link in the title.

1. “SOUTH END ‘RESERVATION’ RED-LIGHT DISTRICT — ca. 1907” (January)

This is the clear winner of 2024. By such a wide margin that the number of views it got is almost the amount that the rest of the top 10 received combined. It’s one of the most popular posts I have ever written. It was only the second post of 2024, but it continued its unbeatable steamrolling throughout the entire year. It is my personal favorite of the year as well. Note to self: more vice history! The photo that started the whole thing is at the top of this page; a map showing the general area is above, with the blue star at the courthouse and the legal brothel “reservation” bounded in red.

2. “THE THREE WITCHES OF STEMMONS TOWER” (January)

This concerns a sort of urban legend/rite of passage for Dallas teens that I had never heard of until a few years ago. I had never seen what these “witches” looked like. But, now have, thanks to a reader who sent me this photo. I knew this one would do well, but maybe not as well as it did do!

3. SALIH’S, PRESTON CENTER: 1953-1977 (February)

Undying nostalgia for Salih’s barbecue drove this post — filled with photos from Dallas high school yearbooks — to #3. It’s another Dallas legend that passed me by entirely. Love for Salih’s has apparently never waned.

4. “THE CLOVERLEAF” (June)

It’s nice to know I’m not the only person who loved this aesthetically-pleasing/fun/scary/thrilling North Dallas highway feature!

5. “COL. McCOY’S RESIDENCE, COMMERCE & LAMAR — 1875” (May)

I was surprised that this post got as much attention as it did. It’s always fascinated me to see old photos of houses in what is now downtown Dallas. Like this photo showing Col. John C. McCoy’s home, which was built in 1852 at what is now Commerce and Lamar. Jump forward almost 175 years, and that pretty little house has been replaced by an asphalt parking lot, and there’s a McDonald’s in the back yard. My favorite thing about this post is finding the house pictured in the fabulous, meticulously drawn Brosius map from 1872,

6. “DR. ROSSER’S GASTON AVENUE RESIDENCE — 1912” (January)

This might be the most surprising post to make this list. Basically, I posted it last New Year’s Day, because the postcard featured in the post was mailed on the day wishing the recipient a happy new year. I actually think of this house almost every day, because I pass this corner (Gaston and Hill) on my drive to work. But the house is not spectacular, and the man who lived there — while important in Dallas’ medical history — is not terribly “sexy.” I’d like to think the post’s popularity might be because of the related story about the person the card is addressed to. We have had ongoing discussions at the library about the importance/necessity of transcribing postcards. I can see both sides of the issue, but, I have to say, I have found more interesting stories and bits of obscure information that I would never have known about had I not read the addresses or messages on the backs of what are seemingly ephemeral bits of mail. Like this one!

7. “THE FOREST THEATER YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF — ca. 1912-1914” (March)

I felt guilty because it took me 9 years to write this post, having received this really interesting photograph from a reader all the way back in 2015. It took me forever to write down the short history of this little movie theater in South Dallas and make its confusing history readable. I hope I succeeded! It’s gratifying that so many people seemed to like it.

8. “THE HIGGINBOTHAM-PEARLSTONE BUILDING” (February)

This is the post I was researching when I stumbled upon the photo at the top of this page which caused me to detour from my “oh, wow, isn’t this a cool building that’s still standing in the West End — let me tell you about its history” to “OH WOW — THIS IS AMAZING — LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT BROTHELS!” In the end, both posts made the Top Ten!

9. “THE GRADING OF JUNIUS — 1903” (March)

This photo immediately made me wonder where it was taken — and what was that house up on what looks like a hill? That’s in Old East Dallas? Yep. I really enjoyed this one.

10. “OAK LAWN AVE. — KEEP ON TRUCKIN’ (1971) (March)

I didn’t expect this to be so popular, but even hippies deserve their day! I used to never include anything on the blog past 1969, because it just didn’t seem old enough. But this very-’70s artwork is now over 50 years old. I guess it means it is now “historical”!

And that wraps up 2024. I look forward to learning new things about the history of Dallas in 2025. I hope you’ll check back in!

As always, thank you for reading, and Happy New Year!

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Sources & Notes

See all three 2024 Year-End “best of” lists here.

See all Flashback Dallas Year-End lists — past and present — here.

3 Comments

December 30, 2024

Year-End List: My Favorite Posts of 2024

`The “South” Central Business District…

by Paula Bosse

Another year is over. Another year that has been full of things that have made the regular posting of things here difficult. I miss the days when I could really dive into a subject and just write and write. I love doing that almost more than anything. Someday I’ll get back to that. 2024 — my eleventh year writing Flashback Dallas — contains the fewest posts of any previous year. Most of my favorites appeared in the first half of the year. My favorite post is the first one on this list, and the others are listed as they appeared chronologically. Click the titles to see the original posts; click the photos for larger images.

Thank you all for reading! I hope for a better 2025 for all of us!

1. “THE SOUTH END ‘RESERVATION’ RED-LIGHT DISTRICT — ca. 1907” (January)

This is far and away my favorite post of the year, sparked by the photo below (a detail of it is above). As often happens, I was looking for something unrelated when I stumbled onto this photo and made an exciting discovery of a slice of Dallas history I had never known about. The amount of reading and research this photo spurred was surprising. And fun. As I was saying to someone the other day, if you find history boring, blame the teller, not the history. I personally want my historians to be motivated by enthusiasm and curiosity and to later share what they’ve learned in an entertaining way that encourages their audience to dive into the topic even further.

My year started with brothels. There’s a lot of history south of Jackson Street, children…. I absolutely loved writing this.

2. “DEEP ELLUM: LIFE ALONG CENTRAL TRACK” (February)

For years I’ve loved a much-reproduced photo of Deep Ellum taken in the 1930s, which people often refer to as the “Gypsy Tea Room” photo. I used it in a post a few years ago (another of my all-time favorite Flashback Dallas posts) — it took 9 years, but I found two more “companion” photos taken at virtually the same spot, and I put them all in this post. We see people gathered along the busy storefronts that lined Central Avenue, between Elm and Pacific. One photo even shows a train rolling past. I love all these photos.

3. “THE GIRLS OF ST. MARY’S” (March)

This was a cute little photo that showed up on eBay, featuring members of the basketball team of St. Mary’s College in East Dallas (Ross & Garrett). I enjoyed going through all the photos for this post and imagining how elegant Ross Avenue once was.

4. “THE GRADING OF JUNIUS — 1903” (March)

This really great photo found on eBay shows street work in Old East Dallas. I love finding a photo or an ad or a postcard and just wondering, “Okay, what am I looking at here?” I love it almost as much and I love diving in and learning just what it IS I’m looking at. This was another fun post to research.

5. “THE FOREST THEATER YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF — ca. 1912-1914” (March)

A very nice man sent me this photo, and I started to write about it in 2015. It was so confusing that I put it off until 2024! I love entertainment history, so when I can write about Dallas entertainment history… two birds, one stone. Any first-hand memories of this well-off-the-beaten-path neighborhood movie house have disappeared into the mists of time. It probably would have been completely forgotten, were it not for this photo. Don’t throw out those old photographs! (I’m so relieved I finally wrote this post.)

6. “JIMI HENDRIX IN DALLAS, 4/20/69” (April)

I wrote about this Jimi Hendrix encounter at Love Field back in 2017. It was accompanied by a really, really great TV interview by a very young Channel 8 reporter named Doug Terry. I had tried to contact Doug to let him know this no doubt epic moment in his career was generating enthusiasm on SMU’s Jones Film YouTube channel, but I never heard back from him. …Until this year. And I had to revisit this story, with his personal memories of the interview. Thank you, Doug!

7. “HOTEL RODESSIA” (April)

I love seeing postcards I’ve never seen before. Like this one. Rodessia Hotel? Never heard of it. And then I found out what that building had originally been — it was a historic building that I had written about in another favorite post. It’s all one big circle….

8. “RUDOLPH GUNNER: DALLAS BOOKSELLER AND EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN’S ‘BEST FRIEND'” (May)

Every year I try to write a bookstore-related post in honor of my bookseller father (Dick Bosse, Aldredge Book Store). This year, it’s a story he would have LOVED!

9. “TELESIGN: FLASHING NEWS TO DOWNTOWN DALLAS — 1951” (August)

I was probably more excited than I needed to be when I discovered that Dallas once had one of its own “news ticker” signs which ran across a couple of downtown buildings in the ’50s. How had I never heard of this?!

10. “TOOLING AROUND MUNGER PLACE — ca. 1913” (November)

EBay has so. much. stuff on it. In amongst the… let’s say “less than interesting” material crammed onto the site are the occasional little hidden gems. Like this photo of a well-to-do young woman sitting in her FANTASTIC ELECTRIC CAR, parked in front of a cool-looking, still-standing house on Swiss Avenue. What’s not to love?

And those are my Top 10 personal favorite posts of 2024.

Up next: the most popular posts of the year. Coming any moment!

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Sources & Notes

See all three 2024 Year-End “best of” lists (as they’re posted) here.

See all Flashback Dallas Year-End lists — past and present — here.

4 Comments

December 29, 2024

Year-End List: My Favorite Images Posted in 2024

by Paula Bosse

The internet at the end of each year is usually crammed full of year-end lists. Like this one! Here is the first of three for Flashback Dallas. Today, my favorite images from this year’s posts, including photos, postcards, and a cartoon. My favorite is at the top, and the rest are listed chronologically, as they appeared throughout the year. Click the title to see the original post. Click the images to see them much larger.

Above, a sweet postcard which shows two children and their pets in City Park. I don’t come across a lot of photos like this. I really love it. From “Daily Flashbacks.” (Source: DeGolyer Library, SMU).

Below, a serene postcard showing Exall Lake in Highland Park. From “A Few Photo Additions to Past Posts — #22.” (Source: eBay)

Also from “A Few Photo Additions to Past Posts — #22,” a great photo by the great R. C. Hickman, showing two teenage couples on the dance floor at the Empire Club on Hall Street in 1956. (Source: R. C. Hickman Photographic Archive, Briscoe Center, University of Texas Libraries)

This somewhat unusual photo — taken almost in the street — shows the 1300 block of Main Street in 1927. I’m not sure why I like this so much, except that I really feel the traffic! From “More Flashback.” (Source: eBay)

I have always had a weird fascination for anything involving a conveyor belt. And, for some reason, I also love seeing incredibly clean factories! So how could I not like this photo of the brand-new (1964) Coca-Cola bottling plant near Love Field? From “On the Line at Coca-Cola — 1964.” (Source: Photo by John Rogers, from UNT Libraries Special Collections)

I love this photo of Dallas’ hometown hero Ernie Banks and his wife Mollye visiting Big D in 1955. From “A Few Photo Additions to Past Posts — #23.” (Source: John Leslie Patton Jr. Papers, Dallas Historical Society)

I swear most of my childhood in the family car was spent hurtling around this cloverleaf, fearing for my very life. I really miss it! From “The Cloverleaf.” (Source: TxDOT)

There are so many weird and wonderful photos of the goings-on at the 1936 Texas Centennial celebration in Fair Park. The one below was one I had never seen before: a kitschy little restaurant called The Chuck Wagon, with a covered-wagon theme. From “Zephyr, Meet Ox Cart — 1936.” (Source: Texas Centennial Exposition Collection, Dallas Historical Society)

I absolutely love this dreamy-feeling postcard. The Melrose Hotel pool was teeny. From “Poolside Patrons.” (Source: eBay)

Photos of people waiting at train stations and bus stations are always interesting (I don’t really get that excited about people waiting in airports…). There is so much to look at in this great photo — and I zoom in on lots of details of it in “Labor Day Weekend, 1952 (Redux).” (Source: Photo by Denny Hayes, Hayes Collection, Dallas History and Archives, Dallas Public Library)

Also by Denny Hayes is this spectacularly BRIGHT photo of Elm Street, from “The Bright Lights of Big D — 1951.” (Source: Hayes Collection, Dallas History and Archives, Dallas Public Library)

Another almost other-worldly, dreamlike postcard, is this one, featuring the Fair Park lagoon at the Texas Centennial. From “Over on Patreon….” (Source: eBay)

I love every single thing about this photograph. From “Tooling Around Munger Place — ca. 1913.” (Source: eBay)

One of the most exciting things for me to come across is something like this cartoon. When it was published in The Dallas Journal in 1935, it was simply a drawing of something that was probably humdrum and familiar to everyone who lived in a big city. But I had never heard of a “curve-greaser” and had never even considered that this was something that people did. …Or something that needed doing. I loved learning about this! If you want to know more, check out “A Unique Profession: The Curve Greaser — 1935.” (Source: Drawing by Aubrey Streater, Dallas History and Archives, Dallas Public Library)

I have stepped beyond the Dallas city limits for this one (but have remained inside the county…), but I really, really love this shot of West Main Street in Mesquite. It’s actually a detail of a larger image, but the man leaning against the wall of the Gulf station gets lost in the original photo — which you can see in “Downtown Mesquite — 1925.” (Source: Photo by Frank Rogers, Frank Rogers Collection, Dallas History and Archives, Dallas Public Library)

I look forward to discovering more new (or at least new-to-me) and exciting images in 2025!

Still ahead before 2024 peters out: my personal favorite posts and the most popular posts of the year. Check back!

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Sources & Notes

Year-End “best of” lists from 2024 are here.

See all Flashback Dallas “Year-End” lists — past and present — here.

8 Comments

December 24, 2024

Merry Christmas from 1951

by Paula Bosse

The holidays are here again. Thank you so much for sticking with me this year — it’s been a rough one, and my posting schedule has suffered, but I want to wish all of you who continue to check in here regularly a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, and/or just a lovely day to spend with your favorite people, pets, and pies.

I really like this cover for the Christmas edition of Dallas magazine, a publication of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce. The cover is by Dallas commercial artist Virgil Fralin. He’s even included a little portrait of the skyline (with a rather gigantic Pegasus perched atop the Magnolia Building!).

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Sources & Notes

Cover of the December 1951 issue of Dallas magazine by Virgil Fralin, from the Periodicals Collection, Dallas History and Archives, Dallas Public Library.

See previous Flashback Dallas Christmas posts here (there’s some good stuff there, if I do say so myself!).

5 Comments

December 11, 2024

Downtown Mesquite — 1925

Meet you under the water tower… (photo: Dallas Public Library)

by Paula Bosse

How about a little love for Mesquite, our neighbor friend to the east. I came across this great photo of Mesquite’s old downtown area in the library archives the other day. The full photo from 1925 — by Dallas photographer Frank Rogers — is below. A detail of the photo (which looks a perfect little photo all on its own) is above.

The building on the right side of the photo is the Snyder Bank Building (1915). It still stands at 201 West Main — see it today on Google Street View here.

Too bad that water tower is gone. But thanks for keeping the Snyder building, Mesquite!

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Sources & Notes

This photo, “[Downtown Mesquite, Texas],” was taken by Frank Rogers in 1925. It is from the Frank Rogers Collection, Dallas History and Archives, Dallas Public Library; its call number is PA78-2/334.

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Tag: Dallas TX

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